Silver Lining: NeverDead's transforming man

'Silver Lining' is a new column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to pointing to the pieces that showed the most potential in recently released, bad games. Even in the mediocre, we can find a silver lining.

Games tend to take death rather lightly. Characters die constantly, extra lives are collected and wasted, and respawns are regularly infinite. NeverDead eschews it (almost) entirely, adding an interesting layer to core convention of death in games. As a whole, however, NeverDead is mostly a mess. Combat leans toward the tedious, and the dismemberment mechanic is poorly implemented and clunky. Even the story is paper-thin and mostly unfunny, in a genre not generally lauded for well-crafted narratives.

But it could have worked. The concept of playing as the... (Continue Reading...)

PSA: Kinect hacks segment to air on PBS's 'Need to Know' tonight

Ordinarily, a mainstream news report on how "hackers have repurposed the Kinect to allow people to control computers and the digital world" would have us bracing to put out the fire -- but this is PBS we're talking about. Set your DVR to tape tonight's "Need to Know" and go enjoy your Friday... (Continue Reading...)


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